Thread: Boutique Air
View Single Post
Old 08-29-2017 | 12:04 PM
  #1534  
TSAwithBagpipes
On Reserve
 
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 18
Likes: 0
Default

Originally Posted by Metroaviator
snip...
You'll have to dig into this thread to get your answers. A few of us have laid it out pretty well, but it gets buried in the back and forth. There was a fair amount of attrition the past few months with pilots moving onto "bigger and better" things (regional first year pay has almost eclipsed the captain salary at BTQ [with bonuses]). As for promises, I can only think of a couple that were broken:

-Among the folks that left, the disgusting crew houses were a contributing factor (to varying degrees) in a few of our decisions to leave. We were all told "cleaning services" would begin to regularly clean the crew houses, but that never happened. They're filthy. I'm not trying to be crass, but the same skid marks from 8 months past were still clinging to a certain toilet in a certain crew house. I'm sure cleaner crew houses wouldn't change our leaving, but I know for a fact a few of us would have stayed longer.

-A good handful of DFW pilots signed seat fill contracts and were sent to get King Air types under the pretense DFW would get King Air flying. That never happened, so now the typed pilots are regularly sent to DEN to cover the King Air flying there. I'm talking senior guys with sh***y schedules. I was sitting at home collecting guarantee on the PC12 while they flew stand ups in DEN and added 12 months to their training contract ($20k+ for ATP-less pilots). Not really BTQ's fault, but it's still a raw deal.

If it's your first gig or you're leaving instructing for BTQ, I'm sure it's a step up. There's an earlier post of mine that I feel was very fair to BTQ. I think I covered the high and low points.

It seems like the CEO truly cares about the pilots as ideas that roll out are truly quality of life oriented. We had a strictly continuous duty overnight schedule, but that changed as pilots complained and/or called in fatigued. The DEN schedule was absolutely brutal before the schedule changes were made(it's still awful).

TLDR: Great time builder. Good for pilots with families that want to make 60-70k a year and be at home every other night or better.

Not good for germophobes or people that hate flying in weather and being hot in the summer.
Reply